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Sinead O'Connor pens open letter to Miley Cyrus

(Yahoo!) - Miley Cyrus might have convinced her dad that she's got everything under control (or so he claimed in his interview with Piers Morgan a few weeks back), but Sinéad O'Connor isn't buying it. The rock icon, who's no stranger to controversy herself, posted an open letter on her website to the former "Hannah Montana" star.

O'Connor begins by explaining that she has been inundated with requests for comment about Miley's remark that her "Wrecking Ball" video — in which she rides a giant wrecking ball naked and suggestively licks a sledgehammer — was inspired by the O'Connor's for "Nothing Compares 2U."

"I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way ‘cool’ to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos," the 46-year-old musician writes. "It is in fact the case that you will obscure your talent by allowing yourself to be pimped, whether its the music business or yourself doing the pimping."

She goes on to make some predictions of sorts. "Nothing but harm will come in the long run, from allowing yourself to be exploited, and it is absolutely NOT in ANY way an empowerment of yourself or any other young women, for you to send across the message that you are to be valued (even by you) more for your sexual appeal than your obvious talent."

But she doesn't stop there. "The music business doesn't give a s**t about you," O'Connor declares. "They will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted.. and when you end up in rehab as a result of being prostituted, 'they' will be sunning themselves on their yachts in Antigua, which they bought by selling your body and you will find yourself very alone."

While O'Connor praises Miley for making "great records," she laments that the 20-year-old doesn't seem to care enough about herself. "You have enough talent that you don’t need to let the music business make a prostitute of you."

"Real empowerment of yourself as a woman would be to in future refuse to exploit your body or your sexuality in order for men to make money from you," O'Connor argues before adding a clear plea. "Please in future say no when you are asked to prostitute yourself."

The industry vet's heartfelt letter continues a bit more, but her point remains the same: Miley, put your clothes back on. We can only wonder how Billy Ray feels now that someone else has said what he knew he should, but didn't.

Miley isn't exactly taking O'Connor's criticism in stride, questioning the singer's mental health as she tweeted, "Before Amanda Bynes.... There was...." alongside a screengrab of a fake Sinéad O'Connor Twitter account with some rather vulgar and nutty tweets.